Tides of War
by cheesebread222
Summary: AU: Captain Fox McCloud gets a strange mission from command.  Nothing too hard though.  Until his ship goes down with only a few survivors.  Now the fate of the war and all of Lylat may rest on Fox's shoulders.
1. Where We Are Today

(A/N): Ok, my first multi chapter story. Woot. Now, before we begin, I should explain that I have a lot going on day to day (school, homework, church, ect.) So I can't promise regular updates. But I will continue to work on this story when I can.

Positive Reviews and constructive criticism are always accepted. Flames are evil, and never allowed.

I do NOT own Starfox; I only own the plot and any OC's I make up. And even then I probably wouldn't fight too hard over them. It is a fan fiction.

**Chapter 1: Where We Are Today**

Captain James F. McCloud (whom everyone simply called by his middle name, Fox, so as not to confuse him with his late father, James T. McCloud) sat at the bridge of his C.D.F. (Cornerian Defense Fleet) interceptor class ship, the Great Fox, which was currently in hyperspace warp to, well, if Fox was going to be honest, the middle of nowhere. He and his crew had been sent to the small moon orbiting the planet of Mascoon, which orbited on the outer edge of the Triveil system, which was on the edge of the Mendain galaxy, the closest galaxy to the Maridian galaxy, which is where the home system of Fox was, the proud Lylat system.

The mission didn't make any sense either. From what Fox had heard and been told, they were transporting some sort of important cargo. But it was strange that the Great Fox was the only ship sent on this mission. Especially considering the security on whatever this cargo was. Several solders had been added to the ship's crew for this mission, along with one of Corneria's greatest military leaders, Lieutenant General Peppy Hare. Plus Fox, all the ships pilots, and even the mechanics had to go through a standard military training session before the mission. Yet despite all the safety protocols, the Great Fox was the only ship on the mission. Usually something this important would get a whole fleet to move, and the interceptor's would just be the front defense, the cargo would have been carried by one of the huge battle cursers.

If this cargo was this important, why were they taking it to some backwater planets moon anyway? Fox had heard rumors of Lylatian bases that far out, but he had never really believed they were there. And none of them were suppose to be military. So why would the C.D.F. send a ship and cargo to a civilian base that was on the other side of the galaxy and then some in the middle of a civil war, wrap it up in tight security onboard, and not send some backup? Thinking about this was hurting Fox's head. He decided a routing check-up on the bridge would help, or at the very least, provide a distraction.

"ROB 12, what's the ship's life support status?"

"All systems functioning" the tan colored robot answered from his seat on the bridge.

"ROB 36, what are the radars showing?"

ROB 36, a green colored robot, turned to his computer systems and briefly scanned over them before replying "nothing in sight that requires concern."

Fox glanced over all ten of his Robotic Operated Bridge units before his sight fell on a gold colored one sitting to his front-left. "ROB 64, what's our ETA on Mascoon's moon?"

"2 hours and 13 minutes Remain in warp" ROB 64 replied.

"Good. Alert me if there are any changes." With that, Fox sat back in his chair, decided that thinking about the strangeness of his mission any more would be a waste of his time, and drifted into the land of sweet slumber.

...

"I can't believe this! Millions of battle ships on the front lines blowing apart that stupid ape Andross's men, and I get stuck on the one that's going to the middle of nowhere!" Falco Lombardi paced the random grey toned hall he had chosen to occupy aboard the Great Fox. He was having a conversation with the only "chick with flight skill" as he had often called her, Katt Monroe. Though his conversation with the gray cat (she use to dye her fur pink, but the military apparently had rules against that) had been more of a one sided shouting fest on Falco's part, Katt still stood there, hoping the bird would eventually run out of steam and calm down. The blue avian was a thrill seeker and a man of action. He hated being cooped up without anything to do. Even back in there days as Hot Rodders, Falco couldn't stand having to lay low. His obsession with action, ironically enough, is what had landed both of them aboard a military vessel.

The Hot Rodders were a gang of fast ships and high thrills. They spent their time racing, drinking, and every once in a while, fighting. But when Andross invaded Zoness, they had decided to lay low and avoid causing trouble. Unfortunately, Falco wasn't so good at that. He had though it would be a great idea to swipe some stuff from one of Andross's damaged freighters and try to make a quick buck as the battle for the planet was ending. Although the rest of the gang didn't find it a great idea at first, they soon grew tired of Falcos constant yapping, and anything that shut the bird up seemed like a good idea. Sadly the C.D.F. hadn't thought the same way. Most of the gang got away, but Falco and Katt were shot down. Desperate for pilots, the C.D.F. officer controlling the fleet gave them two options, sit in a boring, damp jail cell for a long time, or serve as pilots until the war was over. Katt was quick to agree to the pilot gig, but Falco was a bit more reluctant. Still, as Katt made him realize, there would be a few thrills in the military, but there would be NO thrills in jail. So they had both been trained as C.D.F. pilots and put onboard the Great Fox. A few missions of picking off patrol squads later and here they were, heading to the middle of no were, and not an enemy in sight.

"Look at it this way Falco. It's just a few hours more, then I'm sure we'll be back to flying around Lylat, blasting that monkey's guns." Despite her best effort, Katt could clearly see Falco was still not happy. "Ok, how about this," Katt offered "they wouldn't put this much security onboard if they didn't think we needed it. So chances are, were going to get to see some action."

"OR," Falco wasn't buying it, "there just having us move these guys to the drop off base or whatever with the cargo as resupplies to save a trip. Clearly whatever is on here isn't important, or we would have a whole fleet with us."

"Then why did they have to retrain us?"

"Probably just some standard carrier pigeon stuff. I don't know"

"But doesn't it seem odd. I mean, why would Peppy Hare, war hero of Zoness and one of the top men in the military be going to some backwater planet anyway." Katt barely let the sentence slip out, before she realized what she had done.

"Peppy Hare! Isn't he the rabbit who got us into this in the first place? Him and his little dress up doll solders made us join up for their stupid little fly in circles games, and now he's gone and dragged us off to the middle of nowhere. I'm going to give this guy a piece of my mind." And with that, Falco stormed off to find Peppy's private quarters.

"Falco wait, I'm not sure that's such a good idea!" Katt ran after Falco, hoping to convince him not to get them in even more trouble.

...

Slippy Toad wasn't sure why he put himself through this. The constant insults, the slurs, the orders. He was a competent mechanic, but when it came to being popular, he was a total idiot. It probably didn't help that he was in the hyperdrive engine room of the Great Fox, and not in the hanger bays where he was technically assigned to work. He had the clearance, but he still didn't really have a job here. Slippy just couldn't help it, he loved machines, and the Great Fox's hyperdrive engine was a nice machine. Still, technically he didn't work here, so hanging out here wasn't the best idea.

When he had grown old enough that he could go out on his own, Slippy had been eager to help in the war efforts. But he was scared of flying in a fighter or blasting at the enemies. So he decided to help out by doing something he loved, putting stuff together. Slippy traveled from his home planet Aquas to the factory world of Macbeth to find work. He quickly got into a factory and began building the latest and greatest fighters for the C.D.F., the Arwing. His supervisors quickly noticed that Slippy was skilled in just about every aspect of the craft, maintenance wise. So when the military came to Macbeth looking for new mechanics, they quickly recommended Slippy. The young frog at first was unsure what to do, but an untimely attack from a fleet of Andross soldiers left the factory Slippy had worked in a pile of charred rubble, and the frog with only one option. Most factories were already well staffed, and thanks to the military's quick timing, the attack hadn't "opened up" too many positions. So he became a mechanic.

He was first assigned work on the interceptor class ship Eladard, but that didn't last long. During a mission to patrol in one of the neighboring systems, the ship fell under brutal attack against forces it and the rest of its patrol fleet were in no position to fight. The ship itself was damaged beyond repair in the end, but thankfully for the bit of crew that had survived, Slippy had a secret passion. His hobby while aboard the Eladard was to study how the ship worked, which got him many suspicious looks from superiors. But when the ship fell prey to enemy fire, and most of the hyperdrive crew was injured or killed, Slippy had known enough to figure out how to keep the thing going long enough for the Eladard to warp out and reach a friendly planet. Thanks to his quick work, a lot of the crew was saved, and he was granted permission to go to any of the major systems and engines of the next ship he was put on, the Great Fox.

"HEY SLIP-UP, GET OVER HERE!" Came the shout of one of the meanest hyperdrive mechanics onboard, a pig named Donto. Although he had to shout to be heard over the hyperdrive engine across the room, Slippy knew he would probably have yelled at him anyway. Slippy reluctantly waddled across the football field sized room over to were Donto stood.

"Hey, frog. Why do you insist on taking up my space! Do you think I'm going to sit down and let you be some sort of hero again, huh frogboy?" Donto was bad news for Slippy. The annoying swine had been the chief mechanic of the hyperdrive on the Eladard, but had been injured during its last mission. He was never happy that Slippy took his glory that day, and he made sure the toad knew it. With Donto, everything was about glory and fame. He was convinced that he would be a failure if his name wasn't remembered by history somehow. So when he found out Slippy was on the same ship as him again, and had permission to be in the space he was chief mechanic over, he was not happy.

"Why don't you make yourself useful princess toad_fool,_ and get me and some of the MEN up here something to drink?" Donto just loved to make Slippy get him things, especially things he didn't need. Normally, Slippy would try to say something, which would come out as a whimper, and then Donto would threateningly ask him if he had something to say, which quickly sent Slippy off to his assigned task. But today, for some reason, Slippy felt it was a good idea to get the man his drink quickly. So Slippy turned and walked away.

"Stupid pig" Slippy managed under his breath as he walked out. All the while, he didn't notice Donto chuckle menacingly to himself, check his watch, and then call for one of the workers to open up the main stabilizer panel so he could "check it out".

...

Lieutenant General Peppy Hare sat in the office room he had been assigned onboard the Great Fox. It was one of the few rooms that was reinforced, making it one of the safest. This is why it was excluseivly for him. After all, he was one of Corneria's finest men. He should be proud of that. But Peppy wasn't sure how he was feeling right now. He had power, he had honor, and he had General Pepper's absolute trust. He was one of the only people to actually be in the know about what was going on with this mission. But he still felt kind of bad, especially being on this ship. He felt bad because this ship had lost its first captain, and so much good had come out of that for him.

Back during his days at the academy, before this war had actually started, Peppy Hare had been good friends with the somewhat loose cannon vulpine James T. McCloud. But when they graduated and the war started, they had different goals in mind. Peppy went on to become a commanding officer for the C.D.F., while James went on to become a pilot and later a captain. Peppy and James had however kept in touch. Peppy had even suggested a name for James' son when he was born. (James didn't use it however, not seeing eye to eye with Peppy about how cool a name Bartholomew was) Peppy over the years rose in the ranks to become leader of a whole fleet of ships. It was during this time that the news hit him.

Peppy had been regrouping outside of the sector z combat zone with a good sized defense force, and was on his way to give the order to head back to Macbeth to meet up with a few other squadrons when he received a communication. It was a message saying that his good friend James had been shot down while on patrol. Peppy was so upset by the news he accidently gave his navigator the wrong co-ordinates, and took the whole fleet to Zoness by mistake. That turned out to be a happy accident however, as he discovered Andross's fleet about to attack. With no time to lose, he quickly jumped into action, calling for back-up and then engaging the enemy. Thanks to his quick wits, battle strategy skill, and his accident, Zoness was saved. And he even managed to catch a few local criminals and get them to become pilots in the C.D.F. It was a very lucky thing for his career. But he often didn't consider it to be lucky; being it was overshadowed by one of his best friend's deaths.

Peppy, throughout his military carrier, felt he had been lucky in one aspect, he knew General Pepper well. They had first met while both men were on leave, back when Pepper had been a Lieutenant General himself, and Peppy had only been a Second Lieutenant. They had quickly formed a professional friendship. Peppy's Zoness save was not accepted well by the high ranked officers at first. Most called it careless; some even called it treason for disobeying command orders. But Pepper had seen it as a good instinct, and a heroic act. He also took into account the fact that Peppy had just lost a friend. So he promoted Peppy to Lieutenant General. Peppy had been happy in this position, sitting in control of several fleets at once. But it didn't last long. About 6 months later, Peppy received a message that General Pepper wanted to see him. That meeting had been what put him here.

Peppy had met the general in his office on Corneria. Pepper had told him first and foremost that the whole thing was hush-hush and that he was being chosen to oversee it because Pepper felt he could trust him. He was then told that the "cargo" that had been recovered was of the upmost importance, and could even be the deciding factor in the war. After that Pepper took Peppy to an even more secure room than his office where he gave him the details. At first, the Papetoon was to take this mission on, but as Peppy and Pepper discussed it, it became obvious that both had a feeling that the Great Fox, captained by James McCloud's son, Fox, was a better choice. So one week of training later and here they were.

Peppy sighed and adjusted his glasses. No need to worry about it now, the mission was going as smooth as they had hoped. And all Peppy had to do was make sure the "cargo" was safely put in the base when they arrived, and then relay Peppers orders to whoever ran the place. After that, he was back to the war. Still, Peppy had a feeling that this was too easy. His gut told him to hang on for some unforeseen event, and it would be bad. But he also had a feeling that that event would ultimately lead to something good. "I'm sure it's nothing to worry about…" he started to muse to himself. But before he could finish, he was interrupted by the racket just outside his door.

"LET ME IN! I'VE GOT A BONE TO PICK WITH THIS GUY, AND I'M NOT LEAVEN TELL I DO!"

"CALM DOWN BEFORE YOU GET US IN TROUBLE. WHY CAN'T YOU JUST SIT STILL AND GO WITH THE FLOW FOR ONCE?"

"What in blue blazes is going on out there?" Peppy quickly got up and began walking to the door to go deal with the disturbance.

...

Fox sat at the dining room table, not a care in the world, happily eating his bowl of cereal. And why shouldn't he be happy, he had just graduated top of his class at the military academy, and was on his way to becoming a pilot in the C.D.F. He was on top of the world. Then came a knocking on his door. He got up with a hop and a skip to go answer it. What he found there quickly shattered his happy state. Outside stood a soldier holding a rolled up piece of paper. "Fox McCloud, this is for YOU." Upon the word "you" the outside world changed from a sunny, cloudless day, to an angry stormy night with lightning crashing all around. Fox opened the letter, to discover in big red letters the words "YOUR DAD IS DEAD". Suddenly the housed began breaking away, leaving nothing but a black void. As the floor crumbled, Fox began to fall into the infinite dark abyss, screaming "NOOOOOOoooooooo…" all the way down.

"gahh" Fox shot up gasping, slowly coming to grips with where he was. He was back onboard the Great Fox, sitting in his captain chair. It had all just been a dream.

"Are you alright sir? Do you require anything?" The blue tinted ROB 4 asked.

"No, I'm fine, just a nightmare." He dismissed the medical robot's questions with a wave of his hand. It had just been a nightmare. But that nightmare had been an all too real event; minus the sudden thunderstorm and the world crumbling away, and the soldier had been a bit more compassionate that in his dream too. It had felt like that had happened though. Fox McCloud had been all ready to take his position as a pilot when the unthinkable had happened.

According to the real message Fox had gotten, his father had been out patrolling when the ship had been attacked by a force that had it horribly outmatched. Worst of all, apparently Andross had somehow build some new ships that were like upgraded Arwings, and his nephew, Lieutenant General Andrew Oikonny had diploid them against the C.D.F. forces, apparently being piloted by some wanted criminals known to be skilled in a dog fight who went by the name of Star Wolf. But the worst part was that one of the Great Fox's best pilots, Pigma Dengar, had betrayed the C.D.F. and shot down several pilots. The only way the Great Fox and its remaining crew could escape was if someone went out there and covered them. And that's exactly what James had done. Leaving the ship in command of first officer Grey, he flew his Arwing out to meet with enemy forces. As the ship was escaping, one last signal was picked up from James' Arwing. The shields had gone down, and the haul had suffered a minor breach. He wasn't dead yet, but with no shields, no mother ship, and being surrounded by enemy fighters, the odds of surviving were about 3 trillion to one.

After he had received that news, Fox reported to the C.D.F. station as he was assigned a week early. He asked to be put in the forces ahead of schedule. He had no parents, his mom having died of illness when he was little, and no happiness. Of course the no happiness part faded with time, but he still missed both his parents almost every day. As fate would have it though, the Great Fox itself had survived, and its current "captain", first officer Grey, didn't really want to be captain, nor was he really ready.

First officer Bill Grey had been a skilled pilot on Katina. But disaster struck when the base he was assigned was attacked. With most of division 126, often referred to as "Bulldog", being wiped out, he was reassigned to be a pilot onboard the Great Fox. He quickly rose through the ranks, being dubbed first officer only a week before the incident. Still, he didn't feel ready to be the captain, and some of the higher up officers agreed with him, telling him they had their eye on someone else, as fate would have it, James' son Fox. So Fox was promoted to captain of his father's ship, the Great Fox, and set out with a crew made up of mostly people new to the ship, seeing as how few had survived, and 6 months later, here he was.

Fox sighed and whipped his hands over his face, "ROB 64, what's our ETA?"

"2 hours and 5 minutes sir," the robot replied in its usual monotone.

Fox sighed and decided to drift back into sleep, hoping that this time his dream world wouldn't fall apart around him again. Little did Fox know that when he next awoke, it would be his whole world would be falling apart around him.


	2. Collapsing World

(A/N): at the point of uploading this, I haven't made any more progress writing the story. Lots of things, such as school and church, have been taking my time. However, this story will see an end.

I don't know about the title of this story. There is defiantly war, but it feels kind of rushed. (Up until uploading the first chapter, the word doc was known only as title later…..) So if you have any suggestions for a better title, feel free to PM them to me. Just know if you do pm me an idea, I may use it. But I'll try to give you credit.

I don't think it's necessary to include a disclaimer at the beginning of every chapter, as I already have one for the whole story, and this is a fan fiction website, so it's assumed we don't own the material we are writing about. I didn't see anything about it in the website policy, but if I'm wrong, please feel free to inform me.

**Chapter 2: Collapsing World**

Fox regained consciousness with a sudden jolt, so hard he didn't even have to bother sitting up. "WHAT ON CORNERIA IS GOING ON!" Fox had to shout to be heard over all the alarms and mini explosions.

"Hyperdrive failure, all systems failing, warp falls in T minus 5." The purple ROB 87 chimed in. Just as he finished his analysis, the consol he sat at burst in a glorious shower of sparks, sending the robot flying back.

Just has ROB 87 had said, after 5 seconds, the Great Fox came out of warp, now facing a lush blue green planet. The beautiful orb boasted 4 continents and several islands, as well as two typical polar ice caps. The planet was a beautiful sight. Fox had no time to admire the beauty of the planet though, as his ship was currently going to heck. "ROB 3, put us in orbit!"

"Negative captain, all main engines non-responsive." This was bad news. Without the engine, there was no way to bring the ship into orbit, meaning it was currently heading on a one-way ticket to the ground.

"Shoot! Ok, what do we have in the way of back-up power!" Fox hoped that there would be enough power to bring the ship down for a relatively gentle landing.

"Back-up power at 2 present. Insufficient for landing."

"Blast! ROB 64, what's our ETA to Crash Landing?" as Fox continued to form a plan, a small fire broke out from one of the consoles. The blue ROB unit got up to put out the fire. He had just barley succeeded in this task when an adjacent control panel burst, destroying the robot in a shower of sparks.

"ETA for crash landing in estimated 5 minutes. " ROB 64 chimed in. Discovering this had been hard with only half the keyboard, the other half having blown up. The robot amazingly however, was still functioning, and kept on going.

"ROB 99 put me on the com system, all channels!" The silver robot complied, and Fox grabbed the microphone that came up from the arm rest of his chair. "Attention all crew, repeat, attention all crew. Brace for impact. This is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill. We are going down." Fox returned the microphone, and then proceeded to strap himself onto his chair. "OK" he spoke to no one in particular "This is going to get bumpy"

...

Slippy Toad walked down the hall, carrying a tray of drinks. His mind was in a world of its own, lazily taking him through the clouds as he walked. The sounds of the ship mid-warp acting as a soothing melody that Slippy had come to accept almost as a lullaby. But he began to slow down, suddenly listening a little more carefully to the sounds of the ship, something didn't feel right. Slippy almost had a sixth sense for technology, and it was acting up. A gut felling told him to hold on to something and not let go, but being in the hallway, there really wasn't anything to hold. So he squatted down almost to ground level. And that's when it hit.

The whole ship violently shook and rocked, throwing Slippy around. He fell flat on his belly and did his best to hug the ground. As soon as the worst was over, he got up and bolted to the hyperdrive engine room. But as soon as he rounded the corner, he was met with the shock of his life. The blast doors were closed, cutting off all access to the engine rooms. Slippy knew there was only one reason they would be closed, and that was a major failure in the hyperdrive itself, usually of very explosive and destructive proportions. Slippy also knew that at warp speed, there was no way to hit a ship like the Great Fox that hard. It could be hit, even enough to force it out of warp, but you couldn't eliminate the whole engine. Slippy continued to stand there, his brain trying to process what was going on. Then it hit him. There was only one way the engine itself could have taken damage like that, "sabotage"

"Attention all crew, repeat, attention all crew. Brace for impact. This is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill. We are going down." The captions voice came over the Com channels. Slippy panicked, he had never been in something this bad. He knew what was happening, the ship was crash landing. He also knew that his chances of survival were superiorly increased if he was in a reinforced room. The only rooms onboard the ship that were reinforced were the offices, bridge, prison hold, cargo bay 2, and the hyperdrive engine room. Obviously the engine was out, the bridge and offices were both on deck one, too far away by stairs, and even if the lifts were working, it would be too big a risk. Something failing would mean a quick plummet to ones death. Plus all the offices and the bridge were password locked; the chances he would be able to get in were slim. The prison cells were only one deck up, but they would be locked as well. That left only one area, cargo bay 2, just 2 decks down. It would probably be guarded, but maybe the guards would take compassion on the toad and let him in, if they weren't already inside themselves. Without further hesitation, he ran for it.

Once he hit the first flight of stairs, the shaking started. Thankfully the ship's designers hadn't forgotten the timeless addition to all proper stairs, the handrail. Slippy grabbed it for dear life and made his way down. Once on level he dashed down the hall, zigzagging from all the tossing and turning of the ship. As he rounded the corner, he saw a sight that made the green frog even greener.

The guards were both lying on the ground, unconscious. One had a small pool of blood forming around his head, while the other was badly bruised and had his neck at a funny angle. Slippy was shocked, but knew that if he didn't get into the cargo bay that could be him. He hit the button to open the door, dashed inside, and then hit the button to close it. Once inside he quickly grabbed some chain and made a makeshift harness out of the chain and a poll. He held on for his dear life as the ship began its final descent, rocking violently the whole way.

...

"What on Corneria is going on out here?" Peppy Hare was not amused with all the ruckus from the other side of the now open doorway.

"Well, if it isn't mister big shot himself!" the blue bird shouted, before barging past the guard and into Peppy's office.

"Hey!" the solder guarding the general's door tried to grab him, but he was too slow. The grey cat then pushed past him and walked after the bird. "HEY!"

Before the guard could do anything else, the bird closed and locked the door, sealing the three in the office.

"What in blue blazes are you doing? Who are you? And…..wait, I recognize you, you're that gang member from Zoness…."

"That's right pall. Falco, in case you were wondering. And I thought we could have a little chat about…" before Falco could get another word out, the ship violently lunged, sending all three of them to the ground. "What the…?"

Peppy let out a loud "OOF", followed by a groan. "Falco, I think the general is hurt" Katt crawled over to Peppy, and began trying to help the aged hare. She helped him sit up, at which point he began to insist he could handle it himself.

"Attention all crew, repeat, attention all crew. Brace for impact. This is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill. We are going down." The captain's voice informed them over the intercom system.

Katt began to try and help the general stand up, but before she could, he stopped her. "Listen you two, there's a set of safety harnesses on the wall over there, and you need to get in them." Sure enough, a set of emergency harnesses had slid onto the wall, ready to hold crew members during an emergency like this.

"Ok, but you're coming too." Katt helped the old hare up, and made him limp over to the harnesses. She helped him get in one as Falco strapped himself in. Katt then did the same herself, and the three of them braced for impact.

...

Inside the prison cell, the "cargo" of this trip idly waited out the crashing of the ship. She was actually suspended about five feet off the ground, unable to move at all from all the various chains and shackles and rings, her whole body covered up by all the harnesses and straps. Her Eyes however, were uncovered, and they were flooding with water. She wasn't afraid she would die. No, she knew she would be ok; it was the rest of the crew she was worried about. She had sensed the foul intend of the chief mechanic for a while now, but no one would listen. Outside, four harnesses hung empty, as the guards that should have been in them were on the floor. She knew three of them were already dead, and the forth was not going to wake up, he was slipping too fast. Now, she bets, they wished they had listened to her. But it was too late. She felt all the lives on the ship, most just faint glows, getting dimmer and dimmer each second.

"Attention all crew, repeat, attention all crew. Brace for impact. This is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill. We are going down."

The water in her violet eyes finally broke over, too much for her eyelids to hold back. And she mourned the death of all the people on the ship that was taking her away against her will as tears ran down her muzzle.


	3. Aftermath

(A/N): sorry, this chapter has been sitting on my flash drive for a little while. I think I originally pictured this chapter and the next as one, so I forgot to upload this once it was finished. But thankfully (or not so thankfully) me feeling a little sick seems to be motivation for me to write. Anyway, enjoy the chapter. And I'll try to get more up soon.

**Chapter 3: Aftermath**

Fox McCloud surveyed the damage, and it did not look good. None of the ROB units were working, most were a mess of burnt wire and twisted metal. The majority of the ships control panels were broken, either having been blown out or having been impaled by the shards of something else. And the window, made out of a super reinforced plastic (one of the strongest non-metal materials available), had a large crack running diagonally through it.

Fox unstrapped himself from his seat. He knew the best chances he had were to find someone alive and work with them to get help. He quickly decided he would first check on Peppy Hare, seeing as how he was a high ranking officer. But the whole situation still had Fox a little shaken and he knew a blast that powerful would have had to come from within, so he decided it would be best to not go unarmed. Sadly the only weapon available to him in the destroyed bridge was a small black laser pistol. At the beginning of the war the pistols size and infinite ammo had made it one of the best handguns available. But after the invention of the plasma blaster, having infinite ammo itself do to its cycle core, and the ability to charge up for stronger shots, plus being stronger than the inferior blaster, use of the laser pistol had all but ceased. Still, if it was all Fox had, he was going to have to take it. Giving the bridge one last look over, he turned to the door and pressed the open button. The grey panel gave a shutter, and then made a loud "POP" before letting loose a shower of sparks and sliding open. What Fox saw on the other side almost made him faint.

Outside, several solders lay dead, including first officer Bill Grey. Bill had been one of Fox's inspirations, and one of his close friends. He had been a senior at the Academy when Fox was a freshmen. The bulldog had helped Fox with his homework, and had taught him about all the cool hangouts and whatnot. Fox kneeled before his friend, tears welling up inside his eyes, then slowly reached down and yanked off Bill's dog tags, slipping them into his pocket. He then noticed that Bill had a plasma blaster with him, which wasn't going to do the recently departed any good. So Fox took his gun to add it to his slowly growing collection, silently thanking his friend for one last helpful gesture. He returned to the standing position, only to receive the shock of his life.

The door to Lieutenant General Peppy Hare's office slid open, and much more gracefully than the bridges door at that, to reveal a grey cat in a pilot uniform. She looked Fox over for a minute before realizing who he was, and giving a brief salute. "Captain," the cat rushed out "quickly! The Lieutenant is hurt!" Without wasting a second more, she led Fox into the office.

"Just hold still old man"

"No, no, no. I'm perfectly capable of (oof) standing up on my (ahh) own."

Fox entered the room to see a blue bird attempting to help the General up, which was not going well. By the looks of things, the general wasn't hurt too bad, though as he slowly got back into the chair, it was clear he had at least sprained his ankle. "General, are you all right?" Fox asked.

"I'm fine" Peppy said, while grunting slightly as he settled into his chair "you, captain, need to go find out what happened to your crew."

"Everyone else on this floor is dead" Fox said darkly, as he lowered his head to try and hide his sorrow.

"That's unfortunate, "Peppy began, "but we don't have time to morn while others could need our help. So, here's our game plan. Captain Fox, you and pilot over there, Falco was it, will go and look for anyone else alive. This young lady, Katt I believe, will stay here with me and try to get an assessment of our current situation. We will meet back here when where done."

"Right" Fox chimed in.

"Whoa, hold on." Falco wasn't too happy about being ordered around, especially at a time like this. "Who put you in charge?"

"That young man" Peppy grunted "would be the General of the Cornerian army himself. Now, where on the least affected deck on the entire ship, and far as we can tell, the only ones who survived. Who or whatever did this is probably after the goods this ship is carrying, meaning there probably coming right now. If we start running around like chickens with our heads cut off, were likely to end up dead, or worse. So you can either do as I say, or get yourself killed. Which will it be?"

After a long pause, Falco finally sighed a "sure" and he and Fox went to leave out the door. As Fox was walking out, Peppy called back. "Fox," the vulpine turned his head back, "I need you to check on the cargo."

"Can do sir." Fox said before rushing out of the room.

"No wait, it's not in the…." Peppy didn't have time to finish his sentence before Fox ran out the door. The General let out a long sigh "why does the youth of today not listen?"

"I dunno" Katt said, reminding the General of her presence in the room. He gave a grunt as a sign he agree, before striating his glasses, and lifting his leg up to allow her to bandage his ankle.


	4. the other survivors

(A/N): sorry it's a bit late but, merry Christmas. Or if you don't celebrate Christmas let me instead extend an alternate holiday greeting by saying happy holidays. I may have gotten this done sooner, but a lot of stuff came up. But at any rate, here it is. I'd like to really quickly thank bryan mccloud for reviewing my story so far. And all of you for reading it. So thank you.

**Chapter 4: the other survivors**

Ten minutes later, Fox and Falco were nearing the bottom of the ship. They were both depressed, as every room they had found so far had been filled with dead bodies. Most of the hallways were also filled with large amounts of debris, and some of the rooms had collapsed in on themselves, not having the reinforced strength to hold up to such a massive crash.

"I'm board." Falco whined as they marched down the stairs to the cargo bays. "Can't we just say everyone's dead and call it a day?"

"No. Besides, we have to check on the cargo." Fox said, as they reached the bottom of the steps. They saw laying before them two more dead people, an all too common sight at this point. "Ok, we just find this, whatever it is we're moving, and make sure it's ok. Then we can go back" Fox informed Falco before pushing the button to open the door. The door stuttered open half way before stopping all together, letting out a shower of sparks as it did so. Fox grabbed the door and forced it open the rest of the way.

Inside the cargo bay, there were several boxes tossed about, mostly just various tools and supplies for the Arwings. What really caught ones eye and ear was the whimpering frog chained up to one of the support beams. Falco immediately pointed his blaster at the frog, who let out a yelp in surprise. Fox however, recognized the frog as mechanic Slippy Toad, one of the best aboard the Great Fox. "What are you doing down here?"

"W-well I w-was" Slippy tried to stutter out, but he was finding the barrel of Falco's gun to be fairly nerve wracking.

Fox realized this, and gently pushed Falco's gun away from the frog's face. "Ok, now tell me what happened."

"W-well," Slippy began "I was getting drinks for the chief of the hyperdrive engine, Donto, and his guys, when suddenly I noticed something wrong with the hum of the ship. Then the explosion hit, so I ran to see what was up, but the whole area was blocked off. That's when your message about bracing for impact came, so I ran down here and, well, braced for impact. And now I can't get out." Slippy put as much desperation behind the last sentence as he could, hoping they would let him out.

"A likely story," Falco began "but why would they send an Arwing mechanic to get drinks?" He finished, pointing to the id on Slippys badge.

"Maybe" Fox interjected "because he didn't actually work up there, but had permission to be there, so they used him as a food jockey" he said, pointing to Slippy's id again, to get Falco to actually read it. With that Fox undid the chain, allowing Slippy to get down. "Besides, if he was doing anything that would get him in the kind of trouble that warrants pointing a gun at someone, I doubt he would be chained to a post."

"Thanks, I was beginning to worry I was never getting off of that thing." Slippy said, rubbing his arms where the chains had been tied around him.

"One thing I don't get" Fox glanced around the room, noting all the standard stuff, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, save the fact it was all tossed about "is where the cargo is."

…

"Thank you. That feels much better." Peppy Hare sat in the captain's chair on what was once the bridge, his ankle now properly bandaged up, thanks to Katt, who moved behind the hare to his left, looking over his shoulder at the control panels. The old hare adjusted his glasses and set about seeing which systems were online and which were not. Not surprisingly, most of them were not. The comm. system was off line, most of the scanners were off line, ever the life support systems were off line. Thankfully the planet they had slammed into seemed to have a life supporting climate.

"Were back" Fox entered the room looking rather sad. "We found one person alive, a mechanic by the name of Slippy Toad." Just behind Fox, Slippy walked in and his jaw almost hit the floor. Falco pushed past the frog, leaning on the door frame in the bridge, trying to act totally indifferent about the whole thing. But his initial expression revealed he was clearly shocked about all the damages himself.

"Now this is some damage," the frog went about examining just about everything he could. In almost five minutes he had decided the Great Fox would never fly again. And all but one of the ROB units was totally fried. "Give me some time with ROB 64 however," he informed the others "and I might just be able to get him up and running again. Well, at least somewhat running. But he might be able to tell us where we are at least." Fox agreed, and Slippy started to tinker with the robot.

"Hey, how come you guys came in here instead of waiting in Peppy's office?" Katt questioned Falco as Fox looked over the damages himself.

"Simple, you two weren't there ether." Falco stated as if it were a no brainer.

"Fox" Peppy called out to obtain the fox's attention, and inadvertently obtained the cat's and bird's as well. "Did you check on the cargo like I asked?"

"Well, you see sir," Fox rubbed the back of his head, clearly embarrassed about what he was about to say, "We couldn't identify the cargo among all the usual supplies.

"That's because," Peppy had that I'm disappointed because you clearly didn't bother to listen to me sound in his voice, "the 'cargo' wasn't in the cargo bay. It was in the Prison hold."

"Hold up old man," Falco butted in "we checked the hold, only thing there was the usual stuff. And of course four dead guys."

"Did you check in the cell?"

"Oh, well…..Fox said we had to move on, so I shouldn't worry about it"

"Excuse me" Fox replied "I AM your superior officer you know. And you were the one in a hurry to get back up here."

"Enough." Peppy tapped the makeshift cane he had made out of a metal pole against the ground and cleared his through. This made even Slippy look up from what he was doing to listen. "Now, I'm about to let you four in on a secret that could change the tides of the war we are currently in, change the history of our system, even change the fate of the very galaxy itself. You must understand that this is of the highest secrecy and system security. You must promise to tell no one." Everyone nodded in agreement.

"All right, now…" Peppy cleared his throat "Andross is building a secret weapon. One that's rumored to be so powerful, it alone could win him the war. Now, I don't understand all the details, but I do understand this," the four now leaned in close to better here what the old hare would say, "the only person actively standing between him and the completion of that weapon, the only wrench currently in his entire plan, the only trump card we have right now, is secured in the prison cell of this ship."

…

All of the survivors except for Slippy stood in front of her cell door. The frog had stayed behind to fix one of the robots on the bridge. She knew the captain, Fox, would have lots of questions. She was given no more time to think on this however, and the door slid open. Peppy, despite his injury managed to hobble over and undo the straps around her head. Once they fell away, the other three stepped back in shock, if only for a moment. Her blue fur had been what had thrown them all off, but there was something else running through the captain's head, something she couldn't quite pick up on.

"Who are you?" He asked, trying to sound official, but instead sounding somewhat enchanted. He thought she was beautiful, her blue hair complementing her blue fur complementing her violet eyes. But she couldn't pick up on any of this. She was partially enchanted by him as well. His chestnut fur complementing his white streak complementing his green eyes. After a moment passed he collected himself and asked again "who are you?"

"Who am I?" her voice enchanted him more, a sweet melody that made his heart melt and his stomach turn into a butterfly garden. "Who am I?" She repeated again, having to pull herself out of trying to determine his first impression of her, but finding him strangely hard to read. "I…..am Krystal."


End file.
